Executive order targets university endowments, taxpayer funding
More university diversity, equity, and inclusion programs could be on the chopping block in the coming months as the result of an executive order from President Donald Trump.
Signed Tuesday, the order published on the White House website focuses on upholding civil rights by “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity” across America.
The Republican president’s directive relates to a variety of institutions in the public and private sector. Two points within the order specifically apply to colleges and universities.
One section asks the Attorney General to identify “potential civil compliance investigations” at “institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars.”
The purpose is to “deter DEI programs or principles (whether specifically denominated ‘DEI’ or otherwise)” that may constitute “illegal discrimination.”
Another section orders the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to create civil rights compliance guidelines for schools, both public and private, that receive taxpayer funding. The goal is to ensure compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court civil rights ruling Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
The executive order asks for both reports within the next three months.
“Illegal DEI … policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,” Trump states in the order.
Further, “Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex,” the president states.
A number of universities have cut DEI programs over the past year in response to Republican-backed legislation. However, some suspect these programs did not go away but merely were rebranded.
Under President Joe Biden’s administration, billions of tax dollars went to DEI programs connected to higher education, The College Fix reported.
MORE: Professors balk at Trump executive order revoking birthright citizenship
IMAGE: C-SPAN
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